Tag Archives: mobile computing

Fun, gimmicky mobile app from popular OTC healthcare company

‘Tis the season to hack up a lung. At least, if you work in my office it is. The sneezing. The coughing. And the handshakes. OH THE HANDSHAKES!!!

During these colder months, it’s harder to try and NOT get sick than it is to just accept the inevitable and deal with being sick. But when we’re sitting under a blanket with tissues shoved up our nostrils, the thought of “who did this to me – who made me sick?” always creeps into our minds. Don’t lie. You’ve wondered it. I’ve wondered it. When your cat sneezes, I bet it wonders it too.

Well, to answer that age-old question, Health Remedies, an over-the-counter healthcare company, has come up with a simple mobile app to help us find the answer. It’s called “Help, My Friend Gave Me the Flu” and the way it works is the user allows it to access Facebook to scan through friends’ posts and check-ins to look for keywords like “coughing,” “sneezing,” “I’m sick” or “I think that’s my lung on the floor.”

The user gets that list of people deemed “socially sick” and depending upon who he or she’s seen recently, voila—we have the culprit.

The whole “Help” app idea is nothing new: the company has actually created dozens of similar mobile apps for all sorts of issues, ranging from “Help, I feel fat” and “Help, I’m going bald” to “Help, I’m sexually frustrated” and “Help, I don’t know what the back of my head looks like”.

Richard Fine, the co-founder of the “Help” franchise, explained the premise of the company to the New York Times as follows:

We want people to see that there are simple solutions. Most people shop by brand or product, and it’s difficult to know what you should be buying and taking. It is a confusing space for people who are not experts. We wanted to take what’s basic and works, and make it human.

Airliner comes up with unique iPhone app

Look at Air France being all innovative and tech-savvy! The across-the-pond airliner has developed a new free iPhone app called “Music in the Sky” and it lets users discover new music simply by pointing their iPhone at the sky.

Air France Music in the Sky

Specifically, Music in the Sky adds exclusive new music tracks to the user’s current playlist when the track is discovered hidden in the clouds. It’s instantly downloadable and the new song can be played right away through the iPhone to either one’s headphones or portable speaker.

What’s more, each region of the sky has its own tracks, whether it’s Paris or Tokyo, San Francisco or Buenos Aires, so users can download a new song every time they travel.

Screen shot of Air France Music in the Sky

To mark the launch of this new technology, Air France is previewing five unreleased tracks from François & The Atlas Mountains, Eugene McGuinness, Villagers, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Tomorrow’s World; more will be released throughout the year.

The Music in the Sky app is free and it’s worth downloading because in addition to offering new music, it allows the user to test their musical knowledge, too, and win prizes like concert tickets or credit towards a future flight with the airline vis-à-vis hidden games discovered – you guessed it – in the sky.